Costume supplier Angels makes 15% of staff redundant
Leading UK costume supplier Angels has made 15% of its staff redundant due to Covid-19.
The company’s chief executive Tim Angel confirmed that 18 out of 120 staff have already been made redundant, with more at risk.
Angels Costumes currently has about 25 staff members working, as television and film begins to restart, with the rest of its staff on furlough.
The company estimates a loss of income of £6-7 million since March.
Angel told The Stage: "Making people redundant at a time where they can only get jobs via Amazon or Ocado is a horrible thing, and these are people we’ve either had on apprenticeships and trained up, or most of our staff have been here quite a while, so it’s very difficult."
He added: "Going forward, budgeting for the next four months is also a nightmare, because yes we’ve seen some television and film come back, but we work on shows like Wicked and Hamilton and [they’re not happening].
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"If come January or February there’s a cast change in Hamilton or Wicked, we’ve got to be sure we’re going to have staff here that can make those costumes."
Angel called on the government to underwrite Covid-19 insurance for the film, television and theatre industries and to provide more support to freelancers and supply companies such as Angels that have "slipped through the net".
He added: "My worry is that we will end up short term with even less staff than we’ve got at the moment. They’re very difficult to replace, and there’s no support for us after October.
"[The government should] wipe off the revenue bills, because at the end of it we’re probably going to owe about £1 million in VAT and revenue."
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